Day Four – Walking out the door (by Lisa Stoll)

I’ve been sitting here tonight, trying to wait patiently for the internet signal to last more than 3 minutes at a pop, trying to wrap my head around what I’m feeling after our first full day of ‘work’ at the hospital so I can make something coherent out of all these emotions that made up our first Tuesday on site.

It’s one thing to send in an application for a missions trip, praying that this call God placed on your heart aligns with the heart of the trip itself.

It’s one thing to start planning and fundraising and dreaming about what it will be like.

It’s one thing to step on a plane and head around the world.

But to wake-up this morning alongside a team of people that have been praying for the Lord to use them, and to realize that today’s the day…and then to watch each of them go out, one after the other, and follow His lead?? It’s awe inspiring.

Today our team reached just about every corner of the property for one reason or another.

Some went on surgical rounds first thing this morning, learning about each patient and even stopping to pray for some of them.

Others tackled the repair of the hospitals main generator that’s been in desperate need of repair for a very long time.

Others joined together to dig 16 post holes around the property where tomorrow they’ll be cementing in solar post lights to help make the hospital safer for the docs and the patients.

Others walked alongside chaplains into room after room after room, learning stories of how the patients came to Soddo and praying over them.

Others stepped in the operating room and watched first-hand how surgeries really happen in the middle of rural Ethiopia.

Others captured amazing photographs of the team and the people at the hospital so we would never ever forget a moment.

While others sorted all the donated supplies and helped distribute them to the local missionary families.

Today, each person on this team took the opportunities placed before them to go out and BE the hands and feet of Jesus in this place. And although we may never truly know how far He was able to reach through each of us, we can lay our heads down tonight knowing that when tomorrow comes, all we have to do after breakfast is get our shoes back on, walk out that door, and say “yes.” The rest of it is up to Him.